THE DOLLAR WE DON'T SPEND.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1709, 25 June 1874, Page 2

THE DOLLAR WE DON'T SPEND.

We have to calculate pretty close at our house, you if now; and the whole family are called into council when any important expenditure is to be made. Well, the other evening, we were considering the small remnant of the quarter's salary, and Mrs. Dobbs was trying to reckon how it could be niade to cover everything. There was her new dress, and a new carpet for the best parlor, and a new hat for our (at present) unmarried daughter, besides a great many other things, with which I will not occupy your valuable space. The main point was the new dress, and Mrs. Dobbs was thinking of this shade, and scrutinizing that pattern, wishing she could buy them all, doubting if she could buy any of them; and our faces grew longer as the salary shorter. Presently, with one of my happy inspirations, I - said to her: "Mrs. Dobbs, there is no dollar that does you so much good as the one you don't spend." She looked at mo a l;ttle perplexed, and presently she said, " Why, doctor, I don't understand you." So I said, " The handsomest dress is one, you don't buy." "Oh yes, that's true. The best dress I ever "had was the silk that Mrs. Largebead gave me when she came from Philadelphia. She bought it at Homer & Colloday's ; it couldn't have cost less than—" " Mrs. Dobbs," said I, interupting her, " the handsomest and every way the best dress is the one you don't have." She was more puzzled than ever, and I was forced to explain. " Mrs. Dobbs," said I, " all the dresses you have ever bought Lave worn outj haven't they ? " " Yes, " said she very promptly, " all of them. I haven't a decent thing to my name. There is my bombazine—" " Wait a moment," I said, for I was mortally afraid to have her get on that topic; " and did you ever buy a dress, did you ever have a dress, any way, that you didn't have some mis-; giyings over; that you didn't sees some defect in; that you didn't rather whh you had bought the other?" "I believe you are right," she > said, thonghtfully.. " "But," said I, " the dress thatjyon don't buy has no faults; you are never tired of it; it never grows old; never fades ; never wears out; or if you want to change, how easily the change is made!" "Why, yes," said Mrs. Dobbs; " I never thought of that before. " "And so," eaid I" of your dollar. You never spent a dollar in your life that' you didn't feel at least a doubt as to whether you had spent it wisely. You wish you had bought something else. But the wish was vain; you couldn't make a change. The dollar that you spend you can spend but once, but the dollar that you don't spend you can spend a hundred times. You can buy a hundred things with it every time you go out. if you are dissatisfied with any of your purchases, you can go back and begin all over. And so," I continued, "the dollar that you don't spend does you a great deal more good than the dollar that you speed ; and, better than all, it bringi with tno regrets, no misgivings, even." Mrs. Dobbs looked as though she did not know ust how to answer me, but at the same time as though she was not quite convinced. Presently she said: " Well, doctor, I don't know that I see through it all ; but no doubt you are right, for you are a great deal wiser than I ami And so we will go on that principle. I will take the dollar that we do spend, and you shall have that dollar that we don't spend, which is, as you have showed, so much the better of the two."—Vermont Chronicle.